OUR OPINION: In the wake of Sandy Hook, we must reflect and then act

No one from Sandy Hook Elementary School will ever forget. Nor should the rest of us. But as much as the country and our leaders will want to act to prevent yet another predictable tragedy, we must reflect before we react.

The Patriot Ledger, Quincy, MA

Writer

Posted Dec. 18, 2012 at 12:01 AM
Updated Dec 18, 2012 at 6:13 PM

Posted Dec. 18, 2012 at 12:01 AM
Updated Dec 18, 2012 at 6:13 PM

» Social News

America is reeling from yet another mass shooting. It’s impossible not to react emotionally to the murders of 20 children who were loved beyond all measure and the six educators who gave their lives to protect them. It’s hard not to feel for a mother who was killed at home by her son, a troubled young man who carried out the assaults.

No one from Sandy Hook Elementary School will ever forget. Nor should the rest of us. But as much as the country and our leaders will want to act to prevent yet another predictable tragedy, we must reflect before we react.

This is the 14th American school shooting in 15 years, according to NBC News, and the eighth mass shooting in 2012 so far.

Before Congress or the president files legislation, we should parse the facts from our feelings. As we saw with various media covering the tragedy at Sandy Hook, those eager to get it fast sometimes didn’t get it right.

While we appreciate and agree with the impetus to change the political, societal and medical climate that allows for innocents to be gunned down in their schools and workplaces – and to change it in a timely manner – let’s take the appropriate amount of time to make sure we’re enacting the kind of change that will help to protect against another mass shooting. As with the Patriot Act – which passed just six weeks after 9/11 – our haste to protect ourselves resulted in key parts of the legislation being deemed unconstitutional and much of it still under fire by legal experts for violating Americans’ civil rights.

Then there were the measures enacted after a spate of school shootings in 1997 and 1998, and Columbine in 1999. Zero-tolerance policies were instituted in many schools across the country, and students who brought weapons to school were punished. Such measures only succeeded in perpetuating a false sense of security, especially in light of 6-year-olds being suspended for having camping utensils in backpacks. Widespread anti-bullying measures sought to curb school shootings after it was incorrectly reported that the Columbine shooters had been bullied. Later, the FBI revealed that the shooters were the bullies. Across the country, schools are locked down and parents have to be buzzed inside to keep out would-be assailants. Yet such a measure offers little defense against a man with guns, as proven at Sandy Hook, where the killer shot out the glass in the front entrance.

Much busywork has been done to try to protect our children in their schools. Little to nothing has been done at the national level to protect society at large from mass shootings. We are still vulnerable.

Anecdotal evidence suggests there are common threads among the mass shootings. In many of the attacks, the weapons of choice were semi-automatic guns with the capacity to fire multiple rounds very quickly. Often the assailants were men who were later described as having mental health issues.

Page 2 of 2 - There are now outraged calls by the well-intentioned to ban all guns. It won’t happen. The Second Amendment was designed by our forefathers to protect the populace from an antagonistic militia, like what we have now in Syria. We can, and should, consider the range of weapons available in America and re-evaluate their role in society.

We must also sensibly reassess how we as a society medically treat the mentally ill and what services we offer their families. Now, jail is largely the only option.

Let’s start there, but recognize it’s only a start.

Our president and our Congress owe it to the 66 victims of mass shootings this year, and the too many who came before them, to realize true change to curb this devastating violence.

They owe it to us to work together compassionately, apolitically and with the country’s best interests at heart – not those of any deep-pocketed lobby – to end the horror of children being mowed down in their classrooms.

And we owe it to the community of Newtown, Conn., that we as a society pledge that this time we will get it right. This time America won’t simply react, but reflect thoughtfully, intentionallyand intellectually – and then, in a timely manner, without haste or delay, act effectively.